Business

What Would Happen if Your Bank Ran a Bar? Spoiler: Bad Things

That frosty pint of beer sure looks good, and it’s headed straight your way, but not before the bartender takes a big swig first. Hey, is that any way to treat a libation?

TransferWise, an international money exchange service, says that’s no way to treat a customer trying to transfer money, either. The company, co-founded by one of Skype’s first employees Taavet Hinrikus, set up a prank video in a London pub to make a point about big banks’ tendencies to syphon money off the top.

The ad is another in a long line of hidden-camera stunts that capture consumers’ reactions to sometimes-outlandish scenarios. Brands around the world are continuing to latch onto prankvertising, or shockvertising, as a way of getting their messages noticed and shared.

TransferWise, a startup with investors that include PayPal founder Max Levchin, posted the video on its blog under the headline: “Bad news. Your bank just opened a bar. It doesn’t end well.”

The ad shows thirsty patrons, obviously expecting a full pour, startled at the barkeep’s big gulps. He, predictably, gets sloshed on the spoils.

Hinrikus has said in interviews that he and his co-founder Kristo Kaarmann stumbled on the idea for TransferWire while trying to send money back and forth between jobs in London and their home bases in Estonia. With banks taking at least 5% of the transfer amount, often in hidden fees, the friends started circumventing the system by exchanging with each other. A business was born, expansion followed, and the company now operates in a number of European and international markets and within the U.S.

TransferWire calls itself the “Robin Hood of currency,” though it’s not free for the user. For sending money online from one county to another, the fee is usually about 0.5 percent. But the company would probably never drink your cocktail.

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